Privacy Statement HSE.ie

Introduction

The Health Service Executive (HSE) owns and runs the www.hse.ie website. The HSE needs to collect and use certain information about you when you use any of the HSE’s online services.

The HSE is committed to protecting your privacy and takes the security of your information very seriously.

The HSE aims to be clear and transparent about the information we collect about you and how we will use that information.

This policy will set out the following:

The Data Controller

The Data Protection Officer (DPO)

What Personal Data we Collect

What we use your Personal Data for

How long will we hold onto your Personal Data

Who will have access to your Personal Data

International data transfers

Your Rights

Complaints

The Data Controller

The Health Service Executive (HSE) is the Data Controller for all personal data which is collected and used by the www.hse.ie website. A Data Controller is the legal entity which determines how and why personal data is collected and used.

What Personal Data we Collect

Personal data means any information relating to you which allows the HSE to identify you, such as your name & address, contact phone numbers and email address.

Most areas of the www.hse.ie website can be accessed by you without the need for you to provide any of your personal data. Some areas, though, require you to submit your name, email address, and other contact details, for example when you use the Livechat service, make a complaint via YourServiceYourSay, order certificates online, sign up for programmes like the X-Pert Diabetes Programme or newsletters like the HSE Mental Health Connecting for Life newsletter.

The communications you exchange with the HSE as part of signing up for a programme/newsletter, making a complaint or using LiveChat

Information about your use of this website

Cookies & Site Tracking

This website uses cookies to enable the HSE to improve its service to you. Cookies are small text files which are downloaded to your computer device when you visit a website. Your web browser (for example, Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Google Chrome etc) then sends these cookies back to website on each subsequent visit so that they can recognise you and remember things like your preferences. The www.hse.ie cookie policy is published here.

The HSE also uses tracking software to help use monitor users traffic patterns and site usage to help us develop the design and layout of our websites. The tracking software may collect the following technical information about your use of this website:

IP address

The type of computer device used by you to connect to the website

Operating system of the computer device used by you to connect to the website

Your preferred language used to display the webpage

The data and time when you accessed the website

The page you visited on the website

Total time you spent on the website

Geographic location (country only) of the computer device used by you to connect to the website.

What we use your Personal Data for

Any personal data we collect from you on this website will only be used by the HSE for the following purposes:

To provide you with a better customer experience by making services available online

campaigns and promotions which the HSE feels may be of benefit to you.

To gain your feedback on this website

The HSE will not use the data we collect about you on the www.hse.ie website for any other purposes without first contacting you and seeking your consent

The HSE may use anonymised data from this website for the purposes of analysing, planning and improving the service. This anonymised data will not include any of your personal data

How long will we hold onto your Personal Data

The HSE will only retain your personal data for as long as it is necessary to fulfil the purpose it is being processed for. All personal data collected by the HSE is retained in accordance with the HSE Record Retention Policy. The HSE Record Retention Policy is published on the HSE website at: www.hse.ie/eng/services/yourhealthservice/info/dp/recordretpolicy.pdf

Who will have access to your Personal Data

Only HSE staff, agents and suppliers who are directly involved with the management of the www.hse.ie website shall have access to your personal data which is collected by this website.

All HSE staff, agents and suppliers which may have access to personal data shall be bound to the HSE via confidentiality agreements and are obliged to keep your personal data secure, and to use it only for the purposes specified by the HSE.

Will my personal data be transferred outside of the European Economic Area (EEA)

The HSE uses Google Analytics to collect information about your use of this website and part of this information includes your IP address which is considered personal data. However, the HSE has anonymised IP addresses for this website which means that no individual can be identified by the IP address.

The HSE does not transfer any other personal data about you outside the EEA. If the HSE decides to transfer your personal data outside the EEA they shall ensure the provisions of Chapter V of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) are complied with.

What are your Rights

Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to

Right of access – you have the right to request a copy of the information that we hold about you.

Right of rectification – you have a right to correct data that we hold about you that is inaccurate or incomplete.

Right to be forgotten – in certain circumstances you can ask for the data we hold about you to be erased from our records.

Right to restriction of processing – where certain conditions apply to have a right to restrict the processing.

Right of portability – where certain conditions apply, you have the right to have the data we hold about you transferred to another organisation.

Right to object – you have the right to object to certain types of processing such as direct marketing.

Right to object to automated processing, including profiling – you also have the right to be subject to the legal effects of automated processing or profiling.

Right to review: in the event that the HSE’s refuses your request under rights of access, we will provide you with a reason as to why.

Withdraw your consent – where you have consented to receiving emails or newsletters you may withdraw your consent at any time

When submitting a request, the HSE may need information from you to confirm your identity.

Once your identity has been confirmed, the HSE will supply you with your information free of charge, however, we may charge a reasonable fee if believe your request is clearly unfounded, excessive or repetitive.

Making a complaint

In the event that you wish to make a complaint about how your personal data is being processed by the HSE, or how your complaint has been handled, you have the right to lodge a complaint directly with the Data Protection supervisory authority and the HSE Data Protection Officer: